RELIGION

Iraq's government ferrying relief supplies to Mosul

Associated Press
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An Iraqi Army soldier feeds dogs in a village recently liberated from the Islamic State group outside Mosul, Iraq, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (The Associated Press)

An Iraqi Army soldier feeds dogs in a village recently liberated from the Islamic State group outside Mosul, Iraq, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (The Associated Press)

Iraqi Army soldiers fight Islamic State militants at the front line in the Shaimaa neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (The Associated Press)

A senior Iraqi government official says authorities are sending food, heating oil and drinking water to civilians in areas retaken from the Islamic State group in and around the northern city of Mosul.

Diaa Sallal, the top relief official at the Ministry of Immigration and Displaced, tells The Associated Press Sunday that the supplies are being delivered to the towns of Bartella and Qayara, east and south of Mosul respectively, as well as the outlying Mosul neighborhoods of Ekhaa First and Ekhaa Second.

Sallal, reached by telephone in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, gave no further details.

The government launched a campaign to retake Mosul from IS in October. The fighting has caused shortages of vital supplies like clean drinking water, according to the U.N. and Iraqi officials.